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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 21, 2010

Riccio Torrez

OMAHA, NEBRASKA

Clemson Â– 6
Arizona State - 3

THE MODERATOR: Now joined by Arizona State first baseman Riccio Torrez, third baseman Raoul Torrez, and Coach Tim Esmay. Coach, would you like to make an opening statement?
COACH ESMAY: I just thought that Clemson played a good ball game. They took advantage of some stuff early. Obviously they won the battle of the freebies today. We just gave away a lot of freebies.
Obviously Seth wasn't on it, and we had some big ABs late. We just -- I thought the seventh inning was a big key for us, get bases loaded with nobody out and come away with just 1. It was a tough row to hoe.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Tim, could you just talk about Seth's outing and what he might not have been doing today that he's done so well in the past?
COACH ESMAY: Well, he wasn't filling up the zone. He was not commanding the zone early. I thought Clemson did a good job of being very patient. They were making him pitch, making him throw pitches to the zone.
And he just wasn't on it. He just wasn't as efficient as he's been in the past where he gets on it early. And I thought at some point he was going to get back on it. His pitch count was over 100 pitches through four innings. That shows you what Clemson did. They did a good job of being patient and when they got a good pitch they hit it.

Q. What did Coach Esmay say to you on the field? Looked like he was animated. Specifically what was the theme of what he said and you guys all kind of responded? Seemed like with a round of applause almost.
RICCIO TORREZ: We're a good team and we just played poorly today. There's not a way around it. And for as poorly as we played, this is pretty bad, as poor as we played in a while. We were still in the game. We still put ourselves in situations to score a couple of runs, to scrap away at times. So it's just trying to take what you can from it. For as poorly as we played, we were still in the game. We're just going to take it one game at a time.
And we've got the right team to do this. So we'll stay with it a game at a time and just play to play another game, pretty much.

Q. For both of you, was their pitcher better than what you expected, different from what you expected? Did he have better stuff? Just talk a little bit about how he more or less handcuffed you guys, especially with the first six or so innings.
RAOUL TORREZ: We had a game plan going. We knew he was going to pound the zone away, the fastballs away, and changeups, varieties. I just think we didn't square them up. That's pretty much the only thing. We didn't square them up like we usually do. We knew what he likes to throw and the way he throws it, but we just couldn't square him up.
RICCIO TORREZ: Didn't execute great at-bats. You can look back and he did a good job also. We've done pretty well against left-hand pitching all year long. Tip your hat to him. We'll make the adjustments.

Q. Coach, how much do you think preparing to play yesterday and going through all that and then having to come in this morning impacted you guys in your performance today?
COACH ESMAY: You know, obviously you wanted to play yesterday and you prepare yourself all day mentally to go play. But when they said that there was no game, I think that's a lot better than starting a game and then having to suspend it and having to come back. So both teams are in the same boat.
They prepared all day. We prepared all day. And I don't think that was a factor. I thought we got a good chance to go home, get a good night's rest. Show up in the morning and get ready to play.

Q. You guys haven't lost consecutive games all year long. Can you just talk about what it's going to take now to continue that and go the long way in this tournament?
RICCIO TORREZ: I think it's just taking it one game at a time and one inning at a time, not trying to look too far ahead of ourselves. Just looking forward to tomorrow's game and take it from there.
RAOUL TORREZ: We're going to come tomorrow and play how we've been playing all year long. That's for sure. There's a reason why we haven't lost consecutive games back to back and there's also a reason why we had the record that we do because we're able to bounce back and we're going to make sure that we're going to be ready to go and we're going to play for tomorrow, and that's it. And we'll be ready to go.
COACH ESMAY: There's no doubt that that's been the mantra of this ball club. And the trust from us, the coaching staff, is -- thoroughly trust these guys. They know how to respond. They know how to play the game. They know this game's over. There's nothing they can do about it. They can't get it back. You wake up in the morning tomorrow, prepare to play a good South Carolina team, and that's just the whole idea of playing the game of baseball. Tomorrow's bounce might be going different. There might be different things that happen. And we'll deal with it as it comes.

Q. Do you take any kind of motivation or does it mean anything to you that Oregon State did something that you'll need to do, which is to lose their first game, what, four, five years ago, they won four in a row then, lost their first game in the best of three and won the last two to win it all. Is that something you'll mention to your players to say, hey, this is possible, this can be done?
COACH ESMAY: Well, it's a double-elimination tournament. And they just used their get-out-of-jail card free tonight. Totally respect Oregon State and what they did, but Sun Devils are looking at tomorrow's ball game. You're in the the College World Series. Last I checked, we get to put the uniform on tomorrow. We still get an opportunity to play, and that's how we're going to approach this thing.

Q. Coach, did you decide on a starter for tomorrow's game yet?
COACH ESMAY: Merrill Kelly will go tomorrow.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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